Manufacturing disruptions from coronavirus minimal so far in Medicine Hat

“It’s going to affect the supply chain for everybody around the world because so much of the goods are exported from China. We’re in a not too bad situation here at Weddingstar because we really stock heavy at the end of December so a lot of our shipments are coming in to get us through to later on this year.”

Weddingstar is also trying to be proactive; placing new purchase orders now instead of in May and June.

“And we’re starting to get them in the cue because we know there’s going to be a big backlog of orders when these factories start to get operating again,” Brink said.

Meantime, wedding dress arrivals for the “big day” has been on the minds of local brides.

Manager at Magic Moments Bridal in Medicine Hat Katelyn Wiedemann says they’ve received many calls regarding dress orders.

She says there’s no need to worry if your dress is already ordered – as they are not experiencing major delays. If orders are affected, Weidemann adds companies are about one week behind schedule.

“Normally dresses take 4-8 months to come in and they’re a lot closer to that 8-month mark if you order right now,” she said.

Wiedemann does encourage brides to shop sooner rather than later for upcoming weddings.

Meantime at Weddingstar, they know the backlog could be 1-2 months according to what some factories are saying.

March 1, 2020, is the last they heard when factories over-seas would be back up and running.

Brink expects it’s going to be a bit longer than that.

Originally it was for the middle of February.

For now, he says to expect delays on most items you’re ordering until production continues to flow as normal in China.

by Chantal Wagner

Manufacturing disruptions from coronavirus minimal so far in Medicine Hat

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